I arrived in
Addis around six o’clock on the morning of Thursday, May 28, 2015 -- or, twelve
o’clock by Ethiopian time, which (rather sanely) is oriented to sunrise and
sunset (even if somewhat metaphorically).

And while I
don’t know the date by the Ethiopian calendar rather than Gregorian, I do know
that the day that I arrived was --- The Day of
the Downfall of the Derg.

All the banks
were closed for the national holiday. I couldn’t exchange any of that cash that
I carried close on my person to the other side of the world.

I am spending my junior year of high school abroad in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Home is on the other side of the world, over deserts and oceans and millions of other people's lives. But despite distance my love is invincible. Nonetheless, we can't see and talk to each other everyday; my blog thus acts as shadows, echoes, and skeletons of my life. The essence of me.